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New Mexico State's Braxton Huggins goes baseline to the basket and is fouled by New Mexico's Nikola Scenic during first half action Sunday night at the Pan American Center.(Photo: Gary Mook/For the Sun-News)Buy Photo

And in the Rio Grande Rivalry, it’s another one that hurts for the Aggies at home again as New Mexico beat NMSU 83-74 Sunday night at the Pan American Center for the Lobos’ eighth straight win in Las Cruces in the series.

The two teams meet again Dec. 16 at The Pit in Albuquerque.

NMSU looked to cut it to a one-possession game after Pascal Siakam made one of two free throws to cut UNM's lead to 76-71. Aggie sophomore Jalyn Pennie got the rebound, but missed the shot and in their ensuing possession and the Lobos took a 79-71 lead with a Sam Logwood 3-pointer with 2:32 to go.

“In winning time you have to make plays,” Menzies said. “And we didn’t block people out. We were just chasing the ball, we were running to the rim and perusing to the ball without creating any contact on the defensive end. I thought we had defense at the end there, we didn’t finish plays.”

“We were capable of stopping them and if we kept their point total down, it would have given ourselves a better chance to win the game,” said NMSU junior guard Ian Baker, who had 19 points and two assists. “It wasn’t all on them. We missed some box outs and they beat us on the rebounds. That was a point of emphasis for us coming into this game. Just a couple things we have to correct for the future.”

Siakam finished with 23 point and was just shy of his second straight double-double with eight rebounds. NMSU sophomore Braxton Huggins scored 14 points, 10 of those in the first half.

UNM had its two top big men – Tim Williams and Obij Aget – on the bench with four fouls around midway through the second half with the Lobos up 61-55. However, the Aggies couldn’t close the gap during that stretch with UNM taking its largest lead of the game at 56-68 with 8:39.

NMSU was just 5 of 24 from 3-point range (20.8 percent) with sophomore Braxton Huggins going 1 of 7 from beyond the arc and Baker 3 of 10 from 3.

“We had wide open looks, we just missed,” Menzies said. “We had wide-open shots. I honestly think our guys were looking at them making shots and then they come down and we were taking shots outside of our box and outside of our system. And that’s a great learning opportunity.

However, with this game being so early in the season, and with a young team, Menzies was optimist that Sunday night will be a great learning experience going forward.

“This wasn’t Aggie basketball unfortunately," Menzies said. "It’s hard for me to swallow because that’s my responsibility. If we would have played well, I could take a loss if my young guys go out there and give me everything they got. I feel like they played hard, but they didn’t play smart. And that inevitably falls on the coaching staff to get them up to seed quickly.”

Mark Rudi can be reached at 575-541-5445 or at mrudi@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrudi19.